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CONTENTS
--------
Electric Scotland News
The Flag in the Wind
New Statistical Account of Scotland
Clan and Family Information
Poetry and Stories
Book of Scottish Story
The Concise Household Encyclopaedia
Children's Rhymes, Children's Games, Children's Songs, Children's
Stories
Social Life in Scotland
Robert Burns Lives!
The Writings of John Muir
Home and Farm Food Preservation
Parish Life in the North of Scotland
Poenamo
Fraser's Scottish Annual (New Book)

ELECTRIC SCOTLAND NEWS
----------------------
Our vbulletin - Aois Celtic Community - is making strides toward
being available again. We'd like to get around a dozen people to
test out the facilities and work with us to check all is as it
should be. What we require is simply for you to test out the
messaging service and a few of you should be able to try out the
Blog, RSS feed and the Project Management plug-ins. We'd also like
some of the testers to try out the personal messaging in your own
private message area and also to post up some pictures in the
Picture Gallery.

Based on the prior release we noted only a few forums were used so
we'll likely keep new public forums to a minimum to start with.

During the testing phase we will be bringing in other plug-ins
including our Arcade system, TV & Radio, Chat, etc. so we'll be
interested in your comments as we add additional features.

Should any of you that become testers in this phase be interested in
becoming moderators please let us know. Moderators will need to be
people that will visit the service most days and can help us spot
any spammers and help to deal with them. In this way we hope to
avoid the $5.00 fee we'd considered charging.

We already have the basic system up with enhanced search facilities
over the old system. I would also note that since we've been down
the software people have added a backup system which runs every 24
hours ensuring everything is backed up. This of course means should
the system crash we should be able to restore quite quickly.

I've also today downloaded some 1Gb of arcade games and they have
been transferred to our server for Steve to install.

To get onto the testing team you should email
[email protected] and
then you'll interact with Steve who will be responsible for getting
everything working. Please contact him by close of the day this
coming Monday or earlier if possible.

-----

I've removed the JS Comment system from the site as at first we were
inundated with mostly useless comments from lots of school kids and
when we changed the system to one where you needed to sign in
comments went close to zero. I had hoped that this would become a
useful service but seems we're not yet in a position where people
want to use such a service. This is not to say we won't bring it
back at some point.

-----

I would appreciate your feedback about what books you'd like me to
focus on in the months ahead. I have been doing a few books on
pioneering and intend to do one more. After that I will likely only
do others where I believe it brings new knowledge to us. Most of
what I've found does come from Canada but that's just because they
are out there.

I've found a couple of books by Scots that did amazing things in
various parts of the world. One is about a Scot who was a mover and
shaker in Canada to start but then spent most of his life in the USA
eventually becoming a US Senator. The other is about a Scot who
earned the V.C. and he writes of his time in the Himalayas. As I'm
quite interested in reading these myself I think I'll also publish
these on the site.

I'm getting more interested in biographies recently and believe that
some of them give us an insight into what Scots actually did around
the world and at home.

Towards the foot of the page I've created some links to individual
castles by posting up pictures of the actual pages. Most are just
one or a few pages so they should load quickly. Please let me know
if this is of interest to you and I may consider doing all 5 volumes
that way.

As always I'll keep my eye out for new topics such as one I found
recently about "The History of the Linlithgow and Stirlingshire Hunt
1775-1910". As we have nothing on the site about Fox and Hounds I
thought it would be appropriate to publish this book onto the site.

And so do please get back to me on what you'd like to see in the
months ahead as it would be a huge help to me.

-----

I'll likely be heading in to Toronto next week to attend the "Scot
of the Year" award and I may also attend the SSF AGM on the Saturday
as well.

-----

I've been told about an old book about Robert Burns which apparently
has been sitting on a shelf in a home for a long time and seems to
have been ignored. The person that contacted me has offered to snail
mail it to me and if it looks to be interesting I'll scan it up onto
the site.

-----

We've changed our Privacy Policy to reflect the new "Interest-based
advertising" that Google are rolling out this month. This is the
text we've added...

We use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit
our website. These companies may use information (not including your
name, address, email address, or telephone number) about your visits
to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about
goods and services of interest to you. In particular Google, as a
third party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on our site. Google's
use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to our users based on
your visit to our sites and other sites on the Internet. Users may
opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and
content network privacy policy at
http://www.google.com/privacy_ads.html.

ABOUT THE STORIES
-----------------
Some of the stories in here are just parts of a larger story so do
check out the site for the full versions. You can always find the
link in our "What's New" section at the link at the top of this
newsletter or on our site menu.

THE FLAG IN THE WIND
--------------------
This weeks Flag is compiled by Jennifer Dunn in which she has
produced two articles, one on the public housing situation in
Glasgow and the other on bookies shops.

In Peter's cultural section he is telling us about Easter...

The date of Pasch ( Easter ) is that of the Jewish Passover, which,
in turn, coincides with the great pagan festival that celebrated the
Spring Equinox - thus Easter is the season of renewal in nature. In
pagan times, offerings were made to the Goddess of Spring. The
Scandinavians called her Frigga; the Saxons, Eastre or Ostara,
whence the English name Easter. In Scots, however, Easter is called
Pasch or Pesse, a derivative of the Hebrew pesach, passover, and in
Gaelic,Caisg.

Like the Passover, Easter was a lunar date - that of the first
Sunday after the full moon, following the Spring Equinox, hence the
old Scots rhyme -

First comes Candlemass,
Syne the new mune;
The neist Tyseday aifter that
Is aye Fester Een.
That mune oot
An the neist mune fou,
The neist mune aifter that
Is aye Pasch true.

The custom of baking cakes in honour of their gods and goddesses was
widespread among the pagan peoples; the Egyptians made a cake marked
with a cross in honour of the Moon; and in Greece and Rome bread
similarly marked was used in the worship of Diana, the round bun
representing the full moon and the four quarters. After the
introduction of Christianity, the cross became a Christian symbol
and the Hot Cross Bun became a feature of Good Friday - this year 14
April. In Scotland the Hot Cross Bun is usually more highly spiced
than the English variety and has a kenspeckle cross of pastry on the
glossy brown surface. Marilyn's recipe makes twelve Hot Cross Buns
in readiness for Good Friday.

Method: Dissolve sugar in the water, sprinkle yeast on top. Leave in
a warm place until frothy, about 20 minutes. Sift flour, salt and
spices. Rub in fat lightly. Stir in castor sugar, fruit and peel.
Hollow the centre. Pour milk, egg and yeat liquid into hollow. Mix
to soft dough. Knead on floured surface until smooth and no longer
stickie, about 10 minutes. Cover and put in a warm place until
double in size - about 2 hours. Turn on to floured surface, knead
until smooth. Cut into 12. Knead each piece into a smooth ball,
place on greased baking sheet, cover and leave until almost double
in size. Preheat a hot oven ( 220 deg C, 425 deg F, Gas 7 ), centre
shelf. Roll pastry out thinly, cut into narrow strips 2 to 3 in
long. Brush buns with milk, place pastry crosses on top. Bake 20 -
25 minutes until they sound hollow when tapped on base. Dissolve
sugar in milk, boil 1 minute. Brush hot buns with glaze. Cool. Eat
and enjoy on Good Friday.

New Statistical Account of Scotland
-----------------------------------
Being accounts of the Parishes of Scotland produced in 1845.

This week have added the Parish of Heriot to the Edinurgh volume.

Exieni and Boundaries.- The figure of this parish is an oblong
square form, extending geographically 61/2 miles by 35/8. It
contains 235/8 square miles, and is bounded on the south, by Stow;
on the west, by Inverleithen; on the north, by Temple and Borthwick;
and on the east, by Stow and part of Fala. It is strictly pastoral,
and may well be denominated a parish of hills; one acre in ten only
being arable. The highest hill is that of Blackup Scars, on the
north-west point, and is the most lofty in the county, being 2 193
feet above the level of the sea, and not less, I should think, than
1000 above the stream at its base. The next to it is that of Dewar,
in the south-west corner, which is 1654 feet in height. These hills
are called the Moorfoot, and are a branch of the Lammermuir and
Soutra, from the east, stretching toward Peebles on the west. The
land on the banks of the Heriot is rich and fertile, and, where well
farmed, extremely productive. The want of a suitable road to the top
of the parish for the conveyance of lime has been long felt; and if
ever accomplished, must enhance considerably the value of property,
- there being many acres either not at all or indifferently
cultivated, for want of proper access; and where lime has reached,
there is the most marked difference.

Book of Scottish Story
----------------------
Our thanks to John Henderson for sending this in for us.

This week have added a new story...

The Court Cave: a Legendary Tale of Fife

This is a 3 part story and the second part starts...

On entering the cave he found himself in the interior of a
high-roofed cavern, of considerable extent, partly exposed to the
seaward side by two arched openings between the lofty recesses of
rock which support the roof, that towards the east being the smaller
and lower of the two; and the other rising in height nearly to the
roof, affording a view of the Firth, and admitting light to the
place.

The inhabitants of the cave had ranged themselves along the north
and inner side. Nearest the western entrance, stretched on sacks,
sheepskins, cloaks, and other nondescript articles of clothing, sat,
or rather lay, ten or twelve men, with rather more than double that
number of women, all busily engaged in drinking ; farther off, some
ragged crones were busily superintending the operation of a wood
fire on a suspended pot; while, farther off still, a few bare-backed
asses, and a plentiful variety of worse clad children, were enjoying
their common straw.

Arthur was immediately introduced to the company of carousers, some
of whom received him with a shout of welcome, but others with
evident dissatisfaction; and he overheard, as he seated himself,
what seemed an angry expostulation and reply pass between his
conductor and one of the party. This individual, who was evidently
the chief of the gang, was an aged man, with a beard of silver gray,
which, as he sat, descended to his lap, entirely covering his
breast. His head was quite bald, with the exception of a few hairs
that still struggled for existence behind his ears, and this, added
to the snowy whiteness of his eyebrows, and the deep wrinkles in his
brow and cheeks, would have conferred an air of reverence on his
countenance, had not the sinister expression of his small and
fiery-looking eyes destroyed the charm. On each side of him sat a
young girl--the prettiest of the company; and the familiar manner in
which they occasionally lolled on the old man’s bosom, and fondled
with his neck and beard, showed the intimate terms on which they
lived with him.

The rest of the men were of various ages, and though all of them
were marked with that mixed expression of daring recklessness and
extreme cunning which has long been "the badge of all their tribe,"
they attracted (with one exception) little of Arthur’s attention. Of
the women, the very young ones were extremely pretty, the
middle-aged and old ones, more than equally ugly. Young and old,
pretty and ill-favoured, all were alike deficient in that retiring
modesty of expression without which no face can be accounted truly
lovely, and the want of which darkens into hideousness the plainness
of homely features. They joined freely in the draughts, which their
male companions were making from the horns, which, filled with wine
and ale, circulated among the company, and laughed as loud and joked
as boldly as they did.

We began with the robin in this, I hope, not wearisome but
entertaining Melange of child-songs. We have never, indeed, got at
any time far away from the lively and interesting little fellow;
and, that being so. perhaps no item could more fittingly close the
series than the very old song of

Robin Redbreast's Testament

Gude-day now, bonnie Robin,
How long have your been here?
I've been bird about this bush
This mair than twenty year!

But now I am the sickest bird
That ever sat on brier;
And I wad mak' my testament,
Gudeman, if ye wad hear.

Gae tak' this bonnie neb o' mine,
That picks upon the corn;
And gie't to the Duke o' Hamilton
To be a hunting-horn.

Gae tak' these bonnie feathers o' mine,
The feathers o' my neb;
And gi'e to the Lady o' Hamilton
To fill a feather-bed.

Gae tak' this gude richt leg o' mine,
And mend the brig o' Tay,
It will be a post and pillar gude,
Will neither bow nor gae.

And tak' this other leg o' mine,
And mend the brig o' Weir;
It will be a post and pillar gude
Will neither bow nor steer.

Gae tak' thae bonnie feathers o' mine,
The feathers o' my tail:
And gie to the lads o' Hamilton
To be a barn-flail.

Social Life in Scotland
-----------------------
From Early to Recent Times by Rev. Charles Rogers in 3 volumes
(1884)

I now have up this week a couple more chapters from Volume II...

Chapter XII.
Church Discipline

Chapter XIII.
Public Sports

Here is how the chapter on Church Discipline starts...

In pre-Reformation times the Scottish Church exercised a system of
penance, which, while fortifying ecclesiastical authority, was
believed to conduce to social order. When social offences were not
dealt with directly by the Church, the sentences were, nevertheless,
executed under clerical supervision. On this subject the Burgh
Records of Aberdeen supply some curious particulars. In 1523 John
Pitt, tailor, who had refused to join the Candlemas procession, and
conducted himself rudely towards a magistrate and certain burgesses,
was sentenced by the Town Council to appear on the following Sunday
in St Nicholas Church, "bareheaded and barefooted," and there to
publicly acknowledge his offence. In performing his act of penance,
he was to wear on Isis breast a pair of shears, and, in the time of
high mass, to carry a wax-candle as an offering to Saint Nicholas
and thereafter, on his knees, humbly to beseech the officiating
priest to remit his fault. About the same period Bessie Dempster,
convicted before the Town Council, by a jury, for aspersing David
Reid, was sentenced to undergo various indignities, in which were
included that next Sunday she should go before the procession in her
shift, and entering the church with a wax-candle in her hand, should
offer it "to the holy blood light," and then, on her knees, beseech
the magistrates and the good men of the town to request Reid to
forgive her. At Aberdeen, in times immediately preceding the
Reformation, such sentences were common.

While abnegating the doctrine, and renouncing the ritual of the
Popish Church, Scottish Reformers adhered to the Catholic
discipline, omitting only those forms of penance which bordered on
superstition. And that discipline might be effectually maintained,
it was ruled by the first General Assembly, in December 1560, that
elders should be chosen in every parish to constitute, along with
the minister, a, local consistory, or parochial court. At ordination
elders did not surrender their position as laymen, nevertheless they
were privileged to elect one of their number as a ruling elder to
exercise in Presbyteries and Synods an equal authority with the
minister. To the General Assembly, elders are delegated as members
by Presbyteries, Town Councils, and the Universities.

This week Frank is featuring Sunday Post articles on Robert Burns.
He starts by telling us...

I wish to thank Alan Morrison, Editor, The Sunday Post, for his
permission to use the two articles below. The writers, Sarah Johnson
and Clark McGinn also agreed for their articles to be reprinted on
Robert Burns Lives! Clark recently had one of his articles to appear
on this website under the title of “Inspiration on Inaugural Day”.
Sarah's article on the two Burns Clubs that are built alike focuses
on the Atlanta (USA) Burns Cottage. Both are excellent writers. My
thanks to all three for their permission.

The Writings of John Muir
-------------------------
This week have up...

My First Summer in the Sierra...

Chapter I. Through the Foothills with a Flock of Sheep
Chapter II. In Camp on the North Fork of the Merced
Chapter III. A Bread Famine
Chapter IV. To the High Mountains
Chapter V. The Yosemite
Chapter VI. Mount Hoffman and Lake Tenaya
Chapter VII. A Strange Experience
Chapter VIII. The Mono Trail

As I guess quite a few of you have visited The Yosemite here is how
that chapter starts...

July 15. Followed the Mono Trail up the eastern rim of the basin
nearly to its summit, then turned off southward to a small shallow
valley that extends to the edge of the Yosemite, which we reached
about noon, and encamped. After luncheon I made haste to high
ground, and from the top of the ridge on the west side of Indian
Canon gained the noblest view of the summit peaks I have ever yet
enjoyed. Nearly all the upper basin of the Merced was displayed,
with its sublime domes and canons, dark upsweeping forests, and
glorious array of white peaks deep in the sky, every feature
glowing, radiating beauty that pours into our flesh and bones like
heat rays from fire. Sunshine over all; no breath of wind to stir
the brooding calm. Never before had I seen so glorious a landscape,
so boundless an affluence of sublime mountain beauty. The most
extravagant description I might give of this view to any one who has
not seen similar landscapes with his own eyes would not so much as
hint its grandeur and the spiritual glow that covered it. I shouted
and gesticulated in a wild burst of ecstasy, much to the
astonishment of St. Bernard Carlo, who came running up to me,
manifesting in his intelligent eyes a puzzled concern that was very
ludicrous, which had the effect of bringing me to my senses. A brown
bear, too, it would seem, had been a spectator of the show I had
made of myself, for I had gone but a few yards when I started one
from a thicket of brush. He evidently considered me dangerous, for
he ran away very fast, tumbling over the tops of the tangled
manzanita bushes in his haste. Carlo drew back, with his ears
depressed as if afraid, and kept looking me in the face, as if
expecting me to pursue and shoot, for he had seen many a bear battle
in his day.

Following the ridge, which made a gradual descent to the south, I
came at length to the brow of that massive cliff that stands between
Indian Canon and Yosemite Falls, and here the far-famed valley came
suddenly into view throughout almost its whole extent. The noble
walls — sculptured into endless variety of domes and gables, spires
and battlements and plain mural precipices — all a-tremble with the
thunder tones of the falling water. The level bottom seemed to be
dressed like a garden - sunny meadows here and there, and groves of
pine and oak; the river of Mercy sweeping in majesty through the
midst of them and flashing back the sunbeams. The great Tissiack, or
Half-Dome, rising at the upper end of the valley to a height of
nearly a mile, is nobly proportioned and life-like, the most
impressive of all the rocks, holding the eye in devout admiration,
calling it back again and again from falls or meadows, or even the
mountains beyond, — marvelous cliffs, marvelous in sheer dizzy depth
and sculpture, types of endurance. Thousands of years have they
stood in the sky exposed to rain, snow, frost, earthquake and
avalanche, yet they still wear the bloom of youth.

I rambled along the valley rim to the westward; most of it is
rounded off on the very brink, so that it is not easy to find places
where one may look clear down the face of the wall to the bottom.
When such places were found, and I had cautiously set my feet and
drawn my body erect, I could not help fearing a little that the rock
might split off and let me down, and what a down! — more than three
thousand feet. Still my limbs did not tremble, nor did I feel the
least uncertainty as to the reliance to be placed on them. My only
fear was that a flake of the granite, which in some places showed
joints more or less open and running parallel with the face of the
cliff, might give way. After withdrawing from such places, excited
with the view I had got, I would say to myself, "Now don't go out on
the verge again." But in the face of Yosemite scenery cautious
remonstrance is vain; under its spell one's body seems to go where
it likes with a will over which we seem to have scarce any control.

After a mile or so of this memorable cliff work I approached
Yosemite Creek, admiring its easy, graceful, confident gestures as
it comes bravely forward in its narrow channel, singing the last of
its mountain songs on its way to its fate — a few rods more over the
shining granite, then down half a mile in showy foam to another
world, to be lost in the Merced, where climate, vegetation,
inhabitants, all are different. Emerging from its last gorge, it
glides in wide lace-like rapids down a smooth incline into a pool
where it seems to rest and compose its gray, agitated waters before
taking the grand plunge, then slowly slipping over the lip of the
pool basin, it descends another glossy slope with rapidly
accelerated speed to the brink of the tremendous cliff, and with
sublime, fateful confidence springs out free in the air.

I WAS invited when in Aberdeen on several occasions to assist Mr.
MacLeod, of the Gaelic chapel in Dundee, at the communion. His
church was nothing else than an ordinary-sized dwelling-house
converted into a place of worship by being fitted up with seats and
galleries. The congregation consisted of Highlanders from the
mountainous districts of Perthshire—plain, unsophisticated men. It
was during my visits to Dundee that I first became acquainted with
Dr. Peters, who was married to a sister of the wife of Professor
Stuart of Marischal College. Mr. MacLeod and I were invited to sup
with him, where we found before us Mr. W. Thomson of Perth, brother
of Dr. Andrew Thomson of Edinburgh. Mr. Thomson of Dundee was, I
think, there also. Mr. MacLeod sang a few of the old Gaelic psalm
tunes. ["In 1626 Lord Reav, Munro of Fowlis, etc., with thousands of
their retainers, were influenced by their Protestant zeal to embark
for Germany and fight for the ascendancy of their religion in that
part of the continent. Many of them fell there, others returned, and
afterwards upheld the covenanting canoe in Scotland under General
Leslie. The old Gaelic tunes are only to he found in those parts of
the Highlands whence those soldiers came, and it is supposed that
they; learned them in Germany, and brought them to this country." (Gustavus
Aird, D.D.)—Ed.] These tunes, producing the most solemn impression
when sung by a congregation in the open air, laboured under every
possible disadvantage when set forth by Mr. MacLeod, whose voice,
naturally husky and coming exclusively through his nose, made the
effect so perfectly ridiculous that his guests had the greatest
difficulty in reducing their countenances within the limits of
decorum. Another of the acquaintances I formed at Dundee was a Mr.
Kirkaldy. He was then a wealthy merchant in town, and had been
married to a daughter of Dr. MacLauchlan, one of the town's
ministers; but she had died, and the trial, a very sore one, for
they lived most happily together, was eminently sanctified to her
widowed husband.

In the year 1821 I received a unanimous call from the congregation
of the Gaelic chapel at Rothesay. The offer was a most advantageous
one in every way, and in looking back upon the circumstances, I can
only wonder that I did not see my way to accept it. But Providence
had designed for me another sphere.

About this time a great breach was made among the veteran watchmen
on the walls of our Sion by the death of Dr. Ronald Bayne, minister
of Kirtarlity, Inverness-shire, of whom mention has already been
made. He died in February, 1821, aged 66 years. His second son,
Charles John, was at the time a preacher. He was a candidate for his
father's charge and living, but the patron disappointed him. He
became minister of Fodderty in 1826, and died in 1832, at the age of
35 years.

Mr. Kenneth Bayne, minister of the Gaelic chapel in Greenock, died
in 1821. This truly eminent minister was brother of Dr. Bayne of
Kiltarlity, who preceded him to his everlasting rest only a few
months before. Mr. Bayne's ministerial labours at Greenock were very
specially owned and blessed. His wife, an eminently pious woman,
died some years before then, and Mr. Bayne, tenderly attached to
her, never fully rallied from the shock which that heart-rending
event had inflicted upon him.

Poenamo
-------
Sketches of the early days of New Zealand, Romance and Reality of
Antipodean life in the infancy of a New Colony by John Logan
Campbell (1881)

We now have up several chapters...

MYSELF.

Chapter I.
My Advent on this Sublunary Scene.—Six Years' Despotic Nursery
Reign.—My Deposition
Chapter II.
The Kind of Boy I Was.—Why and How I Became a Doctor
Chapter III.
I Weigh in the Balance the Chances of Life, and Determine to Forsake
my Fatherland
Chapter IV.
Portraying the Depth of a Sister's Love
Chapter V.
"Ho! for the Great South Land"
Chapter VI.
I Forswear the Great Convict Land
BOOK THE SECOND.

THE TOWN THAT NEVER WAS.

Chapter I.
The King of Waiou
Chapter II.
We Start on the Exploring Expedition
Chapter III.
We Sing and Row Ourselves over the Hauraki
Chapter IV.
The Timber-Draggers.—A Pull for Dear Life
Chapter V.
The Night Camp.—The Morning's Vision
Chapter VI.
The Isthmus of Corinth of the Antipodes

Here is how that Chapter IV starts...

The western shore of the Hauraki Gulf is studded with numerous large
islands and chains of smaller ones. Between some of these there are
fine deep-water channels which form sheltered roadsteads for large
vessels, one alone being large enough for the combined navies of the
world to ride at anchor in.

The Delhi was lying in one of the lesser roadsteads, at its entrance
from the gulf, for the convenience of being in the immediate
vicinity of the timber-loading ground, so as to save distance as
much as possible in towing off the rafts. But for this consideration
the vessel would have lain a mile farther up channel, and this would
have sheltered her from the north-east fetch, to which she was now
exposed. The reasons for my being particular as to the locale will
be apparent before you have read to the close of this chapter.

The row across the gulf had so whetted our appetites that the
captain of the Delhi had no cause to complain that we did not do
justice to his hospitality. When Waipeha declared that he must leave
us at our wine and be off on shore to visit the forest we begged off
from our host too, so that we might have an opportunity by
accompanying Waipeha of seeing the timber operations in the bush.
Borrowing the ship's dingy, we pulled ourselves ashore, leaving our
native crew to rest on board. We landed to the welcoming cry of
"Haeremai! Haeremai!" from a large assemblage of the Maori feminine
gender. What males there were, were of such tender years that they
were of no account. The grown men, and the half-grown too, were all
in the forest dragging out the last large log for the vessel's
cargo.

As we passed through the native village, nestling in a little valley
at the base of the high land, we noticed that the women were all
busy preparing food, and the preparations were of rather an
extensive kind, the fact being that as the last log was expected to
reach the water's edge this day the timber- draggers were going to
be regaled with a sort of small feast, and as no wars had lately
been going on, giving a war supply of animal food, a virtue was to
be made of necessity, and the modern substitute of pig was to be the
order of the day.

In days of which I write Maori ladies did not flaunt in the last new
fashion—or say the second last—from Paris, but if they were less
fashionably they were far more picturesquely attired. Their flax
mats and the blanket folded around their persons formed drapery
which hung gracefully around them, and in which they looked natural
and at ease, and, unencumbered with shoes and stockings and
accompaniments, they moved about gracefully, cum grano. At all
events they did not look as if they were going to topple over, as
they do now when clothed in those "troublesome disguises which we
wear," and balancing themselves on high-heeled boots. 'Tis true we
should have preferred that some of the old bags we saw scraping
potatoes and kurneras had been somewhat more disguised. The short
mat from waist to knee only exhibited to our view their "ugliness
unadorned displayed the most!" But we had just to put that against
"beauty unadorned adorned the most," and, rolling them together,
accept the average as it came out before us.

Fraser's Scottish Annual
------------------------
I came across this publication which has the 1900 - 1904 issues of
Fraser's Scottish Annual.

Here's some background on Fraser...

ALEXANDER FRASER [1860-1936]

When Alexander Fraser left Scotland in 1886, he could not have known
that he would become a leading historian and a prolific author who
would devote his life to promoting the interests and culture of the
Scottish community in Canada. Educated at Inverness High School,
Davidson's Classical Academy, Perth and Glasgow University, where he
received his M.A., the son of Hugh and Mary (Mackenzie) Fraser came
to Canada on the recommendation of Sir Charles Tupper, to take up a
position on the editorial staff of the Toronto Mail (later the
Toronto Mail and Empire). He also served as editor of the Scottish
Canadian, Massey's Illustrated, Presbyterian Review, and Fraser's
Scottish Annual.

In 1889 Alexander Fraser married Christina Ramsay, daughter of Dr.
Samuel Ramsay of Toronto and his wife Jessie Fraser, daughter of
James George Fraser and Chistina MacLeod of Galt, Ontario. Alexander
and Christina Fraser had nine children, two of whom died in infancy.
The letters to his wife and children during his many absences
contain vivid commentary on his travels, concern over their welfare
and advice about household matters.

During a 1994 interview, his daughter Shelagh recalled the wonderful
ceilidhs she had watched as a child, and the continuous stream of
visitors including Mme Alice (Fraser) Prevost ( a descendant of Lt.
Malcolm Fraser of the 78th Fraser Highlanders) and Archbishop McNeil
from Nova Scotia (one of the few outside the family to call her
father by his first name). She showed me the rare book Huronia
(1909) on the history of the Jesuits, authored by her father (a
Presbyterian), for which he was awarded a medal by the Pope.

Alexander Fraser organized the Gaelic Society of Canada in 1887; was
its first Secretary, for many years its President. He was a key
organizer of the 48th Highlanders of Toronto in 1891; the revival of
Clan Fraser Society in 1894; and the Toronto Historical Society, of
which he was President. He served as President of the Sons of
Scotland Benevolent Association for 12 years and as President of St.
Andrew's Society of Toronto. He assisted in placing 426 families
from the Highlands on Canadian Free Homesteads without cost to
country or to settlers.

Colonel Fraser became the first Archivist of Ontario in 1903 and
continued in that position until his retirement in 1935. He served
as Honorary ADC to the Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario from 1914
through 1932 and was an Honorary Lieutenant-Colonel of the 127th
York Rangers. He was one of the charter members of the Empire Club,
a Past Master of St. John's Lodge, A.F. and A.M. and later an
officer of the Grand Lodge. He was a notary public, a justice of the
peace, and special representative for the Province of Ontario at the
International Exposition at Havana, Cuba in 1924.

He edited or authored numerous books, papers and articles including
the 2 volume History of Ontario ; Huronia; Brock Centenary
1812-1912; The Last Laird of MacNab; History of the 48th Highlanders
of Toronto; The Highland Regiments at Quebec; District of Hesse, U.C.;
The Clan Fraser in Canada; Simon Fraser, the Discoverer of the
Fraser River; and many others in English and Gaelic.

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